"Blog Wars: Stupid? Or Just Plain Dumb?"

I've always been one to try and stay away from online drama. Recently, a misunderstanding led me to believe that someone, whom I have a great relationship with, was questioning my honesty/motivations/integrity concerning my shameless promotion of the film "The Black Dahlia Haunting" (a film which I, along with many others, loved--conversely, some people seem to dislike it quite a bit). The whole situation went downhill fast, with personal attacks coming in from all angles, along with a few attacks on the projects of some wholly innocent film-makers.

 

As it turned out, the website post in question wasn't about me, but it got me thinking--What a fucking waste of energy all this was! Why would fellow horror bloggers waste the time it takes to bag on each other? I, for one, hope the whole thing is in the past now, buried deep, never to resurface again...

 

But, you know, I let my anger get the best of me, as a blogger/reviewer, I'm used to getting nasty emails accusing me of all kinds of stuff. Example-Jessica Cameron, she's an actress who always speaks her mind, whether it pisses people off or not. We've become good friends in the past couple of years, but believe me, when it came time to review her directorial debut, "Truth or Dare", I thought to myself, "oh shit! if it's good and I say so, I'm going to eat shit for saying so". So, I watched it, it was great, so I gave it a glowing review. Sure enough, 2 days later, I get the "feedback". "You must want to bang her or she's giving you a quote on the box, because it CAN'T be good". To which, I would, had I bothered to, reply "watch the fucking thing, you dickface!!". But film makers are, or should be, used to bad/mediocre/vitriolic reviews. The thing is, WHAT GIVES SOMEONE THE RIGHT TO REVIEW A REVIEWER'S REVIEW????

 

I understand, I'll like some films that other people will hate, different strokes for different folks and all that shit. But with the advent of the internet and social media, it's not just disagreeing anymore! The art of trolling has made itself very prevalent in the world of indie horror! Beyond just a simple difference of opinions, this type of behavior can sabotage someone's career, make distribution hard to get for projects, and effectively "black-list" people.

 

I think, that we, as a community of bloggers and reviewers, should do better! Working together and cross promoting each others stuff can only bring positive results. I often pimp others' sites/blogs--especially with James at WickedChannel and Ginder with "Lost in the 80's",and they reciprocate, which benefits us all. Sure, I've bagged on some of the "major" sites, along with some individual reviewers, but they usually don't bother with the truly low budget stuff like we do.

 

Seriously, the trolling/hate-spew/flame wars need to stop! Look at all of the shit that's went down in just the last year or so: Rebekah Herzberg, who, along with being really easy on the eyes, writes a brilliant blog, was almost trolled off the entire internet by an actress or someone posing as an actress or some shit. Char Hardin, someone whose opinion I respect (and you should too) has had butt-hurt people take shots at her, and "The Dolls of Despair" group has pretty much imploded with in-fighting. And I'm not even going to go into the bloggers/reviewers that publicly bash films/talent because of all manner of real or imagined slights--I even voluntarily ate some crow after acting like a cunt to the Soskas for not getting a screener for "American Mary".

 

 

 

The point I'm trying to make (wait...there's a point to this rambling bullshit?) is, we, as bloggers/reviewers have a responsibility, and a power, that we need to be careful with. I seriously doubt anyone of us is making a "living" doing this, but the people that make the movies we watch likely are. So, if you don't like someone's opinion, don't like their film, don't like their shirt, don't like the shape of their genitals, or whatever the fuck, feel free to disagree, that's what makes us human and individuals. But, for fuck's sake, do it with a little dignity and respect--you'll find you'll get the same in return, and if you don't, rest assured in the knowledge that the person in question will most certainly have a finite shelf life in this genre. And also, I'm guilty of this, don't JUMP TO

CONCLUSIONS!!!

 

 

For the record, I love and adore the following people and films (among a ton of others not listed)-Brandon Slagle, James DePaolo, Debbie Rochon, Devanny Pinn, Cameron Scott, Debbie Rochon, Thomas Berdinski, Debbie Rochon, "The Black Dahlia Haunting", Jessica Cameron,  "Post Mortem, America 2021", Debbie Rochon, WickChannel.com, Chicken Wings, Debbie Rochon, John Ginder, Jen & Sylvia Soska, Debbie Rochon, Rebekah Herzberg, Derek Huey...

 

 

Also, keep any comments positive or keep 'em to yourself--thanks!!